We need to
move out of 20th century of waste and abuse—and create a new
paradigm of cotton bag use. I own four cotton bags I have been using for
groceries for 28 years.They’re a bit tattered,
but those bags have saved a lot of oil and trees!

The Sierra Club reported
that Americans use and toss 90 billion paper and plastic bags annually.For more sobering information, www.treehugger.com reported: “Over 100,000
birds and marine life die each year, due to an encounter with plastic debris,
much of it plastic bags. In Australia, alone, 80 million plastic bags litter
beaches and public spaces. That’s out of nearly 7 billion check-out bags used
annually. And because plastic lasts about, oh, say 500 years, when the bird it
killed decomposes, the bag is freed to injure another. But don’t go thinking that
paper is much better. Oh no!

“It’s been
estimated that the US was
responsible for the felling of 14 million trees to produce the 10 billion paper
grocery bags used back in 1999. Not a figure that is likely to get any less in
the meantime. So no, neither bag is greener. But there is another, that is. And
it doesn’t require some nerd in a white lab coat to calculate what it might be.
Indeed whole
towns in Australia figured it out and declared themselves plastic bag free zones.
All retailers are refusing to offer single use plastic bags. Their secret to
success - it’s the reusable bag. One you use more than once.”

Should you use paper or
plastic?My answer: neither!Go cotton!

Thankfully, here in Denver,
Whole Foods no longer offers plastic bags, but they do offer paper.They do offer cotton bags, but don’t mandate a
financial incentive to stop using paper. I invite King Soopers and Safeways to
move toward total cotton bag use driven by financial incentives.

Where do brown paper bags come from?

The www.treehugger.com reported, “Paper comes from
trees -- lots and lots of trees. The logging industry, influenced by companies
like Weyerhaeuser
and Kimberly-Clark,
is huge, and the process to get that paper bag to the grocery store is long,
sordid and exacts a heavy toll on the planet. First, the trees are found,
marked and felled in a process that all too often involves clear-cutting,
resulting in massive habitat destruction and long-term ecological damage.”

Where do
plastic bags come from?

Plastic bags come from oil. In
less than 50 years, plastic bags cover the planet’s land and oceans, and
plastic products cause the deaths of millions of land and marine creatures. Off
the coast of San Francisco, California, three million tons of plastic bags and
containers create the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”.Humans add another 2.5 million pieces to that
plastic patch daily as they toss their trash.Today 46,000 pieces of plastic float on every square mile of Earth’s
oceans.It’s pretty sickening and I’ve
seen it firsthand.Thankfully, Oprah
reported on that “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” with it being 60 feet deep in
places.It’s humanity’s greatest
sacrilege against nature. In a few words, it’d downright sickening and immoral!

In the end, plastic proves
deadly, unsightly, disgusting and counter to everything in nature. The faster
we stop using plastic containers, the better. Or, we must create a compelling
10 cent deposit law on everything bought in retail stores. The great State of
Michigan enjoys such a law for the past 20 years. Their roadways, lakes and
streams enjoy pristine beauty.Why? No
matter who tosses their plastic containers, an armada of kids picks them up for
that 10 cent reward.

Vince said to “bag it”, but I
say, let’s move out of the past, deal with the damage plastic bags create—and move
toward cotton bags used at all retail outlets both grocery and mercantile.The fact remains that humans prove
irresponsible and careless. Thus, those of us that care must put into place a system
that no longer allows the village idiots among us to toss their plastic.Even idiots will return a piece of plastic
for a 10 cent reward.

When the clerk asks you, “Paper
or plastic?”, you can respond, “Here are my 28 year old cotton bags!”

To take action: First and foremost, join www.numbersusa.com and become
one of nearly a million Americans making impact with pre-written faxes and
phone calls to change immigration policies toward a stable future. Bi-partisan
and highly effective!

Second, join www.thesocialcontract.com for up to date information via
the Social Contract Quarterly. Exceptional publication to keep you informed.

Frosty Wooldridge has bicycled across six continents – from the Arctic to the
South Pole – as well as six times across the USA, coast to coast and border to
border. In 2005, he bicycled from the Arctic Circle, Norway to Athens,
Greece. He presents “The Coming Population Crisis in America: and what
you can do about it” to civic clubs, church groups, high schools and colleges.
He works to bring about sensible world population balance at www.frostywooldridge.com